President Stanley Holloway called the meeting to order at 10:15. It was moved by Ken McCaskill and seconded by Tony McGaha to accept the minutes as posted. Motion carried. Stanley then presented the treasurer's report on behalf of Ross Young. John Dorner moved and Cliff Ruth seconded that the treasurer's report be approved as read. Motion carried.
Next item of business is to elect new secretary. Diane will move up to Vice President and Jeff to Director. Alan Durden and John Dorner were appointed to select nominations for secretary. Stanley then asked for discussion on the grant page ideas. The information compiled by Ducharme Ducharme was circulated to the group for comments to be e-mailed to Diane Ducharme. Stanley stated that Ken McCaskill had received the DSA and Silas Brown the young agent scholarship. Stanley encouraged everyone interested in these awards to contact Kenneth Reeves for details.
Jeff Vance then gave the State Board Meeting report. They met Monday of the Annual Convention. Dr. Ort discussed with them having the Galaxy Convention in conjunction with us possibly hosting the National meeting in 2008. We would place our bid for the meeting in 2004. We will need $5,000 from each district to support bid process. The state meeting will be June 10-12 in Nags Head.
Registration information is not out yet, but will increase $10.00 for agents to $50.00. Others will stay the same. The 2004 meeting will be in Winston-Salem June 15-17. The National meeting will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin in July. Fred Miller will bid for national secretary. Many national committee chairs are open. Contact Stanley or Jeff if interested. John mentioned some help on travel and registration to national meeting if you are a chair of national committee. The state board agreed to support the secretary's association in the amount of $1,000. All extension services are experiencing budget and personnel cuts. Board also approved sponsorship of Horn of Plenty for 2003. Cyndi Lauderdale has almost finished the policy book. Gary Hyatt's life membership was approved.
Stanley then paused to let the group conduct introduction for any new folks. All had been to one association meeting before. Stanley then shared more discussion by the State Board on the Galaxy Convention. Dr. Ort encouraged us to bid for this meeting. Walter Earle stated the Southern Region disliked the Galaxy concept. Fred Miller said other regions seem to like it better. Fed will get a proposal from national about Galaxy. We can vote yes or not at Nags Head.
Stanley called for a break at 10:55 and reconvened at 11:40. Alan made and Stanley passed out extra copies of Diane's grant information. The next item of business was the idea to let specialists join the association. Stanley poled the group present (15 agents) and all were in favor of specialists joining our association. Stanley then asked who were planning to go to the National meeting. Our voting delegate will be either Stanley or Diane Ducharme if she is going. The voting delegate gets expenses reimbursed for travel.
Stanley then asked for a nominating committee report. Jeff Vance reported that the nominees were:
Jeff Vance, Director
Diane Ducharme, Vice Director
Chris Talley, Secretary
Ross Young, Treasurer
Steve Duckett moved and Alan Durden seconded closing nomination. Motion carried. Tony McGaha moved and Ken McCaskill seconded approving the officer slate as presented. Stanley then asked for discussion on a fall meeting date and county. After some discussion the meeting date was set for October 7 at 10:00 am in Transylvania County. Tony McGaha then mentioned the conflict of the state meeting with the State 4-H Livestock Judging Contest. After some discussion Stanley agreed to address this problem with the State Board.
Johnny Hensley then gave a report on the national sorghum meeting he attended. He is giving seminars on this topic and asked us to invite any sorghum growers we had to attend.
After lunch Alan Durden and Kenneth McCaskill gave us a tour of the Macon County Environmental Resource Center.
The business meeting adjourned at 11:55.
Posted on 10/02/03
Please send comments and suggestions to John Dorner.